Written questions by Cleverly.

Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of (a) legal action and (b) other expenditure arising from the decision to postpone local elections in England in May 2026.

As per the Secretary of State’s correspondence to the Rt. Hon. Member of 23 February, the Government has agreed to pay the claimant’s reasonable legal costs, with the final amount to be determined. Any further Government legal or administrative costs will be met in the usual way. All local elections scheduled for May 2026 will be going ahead as planned. Spend on administering local elections is a matter for local authorities.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to allow prepaid currency cards to be used as a form of voter identification.

I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the Representation of the People Bill 2026, which sets out which bank cards will be accepted at the polling station – this includes credit cards, charge cards, debit cards and cash withdrawal cards.

Communities and Local Government, what the process for proposed know your donor checks will be for (a) hon. Members and (b) political parties; and what role House authorities will have in the process.

Know Your Donor rules will be implemented alongside clear, practical support for all recipients of donations. That is why the regime is underpinned by statutory guidance issued by the Electoral Commission, which will set out how recipients of donations should assess the relevant risk factors, the kinds of circumstances that may signal a heightened level of risk and the steps they can take to reduce that risk.To keep the system responsive to evolving threats and campaigning practices, the legislation also enables this guidance to be updated as needed.We will continue to work closely with the Commission and relevant stakeholders as the guidance is developed.

Communities and Local Government, if he will make reconsider the cancellation of the combined authority mayoral elections originally scheduled for May 2026.

Government intends to hold inaugural mayoral elections for the four Devolution Priority Programme places that are also undertaking local government reorganisation in May 2028, so that areas can complete the reorganisation process before Mayors take office. The inaugural elections will take place following the establishment of the Strategic Authorities by Secondary Legislation, which is subject to the areas consent. Devolution is strongest when it is built on firm foundations, and this extra time will allow these four areas to establish robust institutions ahead of their Mayors taking office in 2028. Cheshire and Warrington and Cumbria have previously requested a delay of their inaugural elections to May 2027, to align with the majority of planned local elections. Both Strategic Authorities have now been established.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2026 to Question 111142 on Housing: Asylum, how many local authorities submitted an expression of interest to the new model for asylum accommodation.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has not invited, nor received, expressions of interest from local authorities in relation to a new model for asylum accommodation.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 12 February 2026, to Question 111137, on Council tax: Tax Yields, whether there are equivalent estimates for aggregate business rate receipts in each of those years.

The Department collects estimated business rates receipts data annually from local authorities, the most recent data available is for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 and is available here. Estimates of business rates receipts data for 2027-28 and 2028-29 have not been collected at this time. For the purpose of the Settlement, the government estimates the amount of an individual local authority’s Settlement allocation provided through the local share of business rates income. This is known as a Baseline Funding Level (BFL) which is the amount of funding that the Government determines that a local authority needs from business rates to deliver local services. The BFLs form part of Core Spending Power, core revenue funding available for local authority services through the local government finance settlement. In 2027-28 and 2028-29, BFLs will increase in line with an annual inflation measurement to reflect the annual uprating of business rates multipliers. An assumption of this was made in the multi-year Settlement to reflect this and published here.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 13 June 2025, to Question 58058, on Local Government Pension Scheme, and of 12 February 2026, to Question 111138, on Local Government: Redundancy Pay, whether any changes are being made to the Local Government Pension Scheme to reduce the cost of pension strain following unitary local government restructuring; and whether this department has made a wider estimate of the likely cost of unitary restructuring on council exit payments in 2026-27 onwards.

Council staff are expected to transfer to new unitary councils. The cost of any exit payments made by a council offered as part of a voluntary exit scheme or resulting from any compulsory redundancies implemented by a new unitary council, including payments under the Local Government Pension Scheme, will depend on local workforce decisions and the composition of the workforce. The Government cannot predetermine or form a view on the outcome of local decisions on the operational and staffing structure of new unitary councils, including the outcome of any consultation with affected staff and their representatives. Councils should work with relevant administering authorities on any implications for the Local Government Pension Scheme and it is for all councils concerned to determine their own policies on exit payments.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 12 February 2026, to Question 110398, on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Publicity, in what formats does his department hold data on expenditure on publishing content in foreign languages.

MHCLG holds information about suppliers that have undertaken translation activities for the Department. The information will not differentiate between whether the translatory service was undertaken to support published content or for any other reason, nor would it consistently differentiate between translation work undertaken into the Welsh language or other languages.

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the evidence he planned to file at the High Court on the postponement of local elections in England in May 2026.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 23 February 2026 (HCWS1349). It is a longstanding principle that government does not comment on or publish legal advice. The case the Rt Hon. Member refers to has now been concluded and the Court did not make any judgement against the government.

With reference to the Treasury Select Committee, Work of HM Revenue and Customs - Oral evidence, HC 416, 13 January 2026, Question 480, if she will publish equivalent figures for the average change in Rateable values for pubs between 2023 and 2026 Rating Lists for pubs under VOA special category code 227.

The Valuation Office Agency published data relating to your request can be found here.

What Valuation Office Agency guidance exists on the council tax offences of (a) refusing access to a valuation officer who has given notice as required of the exercise of the power of entry, (b) failing to give information about a house to a valuation who has served notice and (c) giving wrong or misleading information to a valuation officer who has served notice as required.

Guidance is set out in Section 1, Part 7 of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) Council Tax manual: Council Tax Manual - Section 1: introduction and essential background - Guidance - GOV.UK

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish each council response to the Ministerial letter on local government reorganisation of 18 December 2025.

I refer the Rt hon. and hon. Members to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 23 February 2026 (HCWS1349). It is a longstanding principle that Government does not comment on or publish legal advice. The Government has no plans to publish individual correspondence from councils. Councils are being supported to deliver elections. The administration and cost of running local elections remain matters for local authorities, with wider costs handled in the usual way. We are also making available up to £63 million in new capacity funding for reorganisation areas.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of changing the eligibility for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure support on the monetary value of that support to individual firms.

The Government is introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties. Since these new multipliers were announced at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government has been clear that the intention was for their scope to broadly reflect the scope of the current RHL relief. In addition, the Government is providing a £4.3 billion support package to protect ratepayers from large overnight bill increases. This includes extending the supporting small business scheme to those losing RHL relief, which will cap bill increases at the higher of the relevant Transitional Relief cap or £800. As a result, the majority of those seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less, or £800 for the smallest, next year.

Communities and Local Government, for what reason the Housing Minister determined that local elections should proceed in May 2026; and what factors he considered.

I refer the Rt hon. and hon. Members to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 23 February 2026 (HCWS1349). It is a longstanding principle that Government does not comment on or publish legal advice. The Government has no plans to publish individual correspondence from councils. Councils are being supported to deliver elections. The administration and cost of running local elections remain matters for local authorities, with wider costs handled in the usual way. We are also making available up to £63 million in new capacity funding for reorganisation areas.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the correspondence, Local government reorganisation: further letter to council leaders with elections in May 2026, of 19 January 2026, for what reason those letters were sent to those specific councils; and if he will place copies of replies to those letters in the Library.

I refer the Rt hon. and hon. Members to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 23 February 2026 (HCWS1349). It is a longstanding principle that Government does not comment on or publish legal advice. The Government has no plans to publish individual correspondence from councils. Councils are being supported to deliver elections. The administration and cost of running local elections remain matters for local authorities, with wider costs handled in the usual way. We are also making available up to £63 million in new capacity funding for reorganisation areas.

Communities and Local Government, if he will publish correspondence from each council requesting election delays in relevant areas.

I refer the Rt hon. and hon. Members to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 23 February 2026 (HCWS1349). It is a longstanding principle that Government does not comment on or publish legal advice. The Government has no plans to publish individual correspondence from councils. Councils are being supported to deliver elections. The administration and cost of running local elections remain matters for local authorities, with wider costs handled in the usual way. We are also making available up to £63 million in new capacity funding for reorganisation areas.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2026, to Question 104170, on Local Government: Reorganisation, and pursuant to the answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage of 26 January 2026, Official Report, House of Lords, Column 715, if he will define what is meant by the "most ambitious timelines"; and whether some of the new unitary councils will be elected at a later date than May 2027.

The Government remains committed to the indicative timetable published in July, with elections to new councils in May 2027. This is with the exception of Surrey, where we have already announced two new councils with elections expected in May 2026.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an estimate of the monetary value of Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief to qualifying individual businesses in (a) 2024-25, (b) 2025-26 and (c) 2026-27.

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme provided eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with a 75% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business in 2024-25 and with a 40% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business in 2025-26. There is no equivalent relief in 2026-27. The value of the relief to individual businesses is not available. However, aggregated data on how much relief has been given in 2024-25 can be found in Table 2 at the following linkhttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-non-domestic-rates-collected-by-councils-in-england-2024-to-2025 and how much is expected to be given in 2025-26 in Table 2 at this linkhttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-non-domestic-rates-collected-by-councils-in-england-forecast-2025-to-2026.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2026 to Question 103895 on Local Government: Working Hours, whether he plans to take Best Value intervention action against local authorities implementing four day weeks.

The letter of 19 December 2025 is clear that the provision in the current Best Value Guidance in relation to the four-day week remains in force. Ministers take a range of factors into account when considering whether to exercise statutory powers in relation to a local authority and will only act where necessary to secure compliance with the Best Value duty.

Whether her Department has a policy on targeting levels of house price inflation.

The government does not set a target for house price inflation. The UK has a 2% inflation target, measured by the 12 month increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). CPI is a broad measure of consumer prices based on a representative basket of goods and services. The independent Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England is responsible for setting monetary policy to meet this target in line with international best practice.